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Anyone one there ? Come in Dockwalk, Come in....
The Costa Concordia Disaster is unfolding in the Tyrrhenian Sea yet no mention on Dockwalk ? Dockwalk readers surge into the South of France each spring to seek summer fame and riches on charter boats working Sardinia, Corsica and the Tyrrhenian Islands.
Come in Dockwalk...Come in....
http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2012/01/15/magistrati-comandante-fuggito-dalla-nave-sappiamo-abbia-coordinato-lemergenza/183992/#.TxNFE1T6q-I.facebook

More fun to read the Italian commucations. This is one of the most unbeilable cases of Maritime incompetence that I have ever heard.
A translation goes something like this.
A reconstructed first radio-call from the Coast Guard (CG) to Costa Concordia (CC), based on first testimonies from the CG personnel:
CG: "Costa Concordia, is everything okay?".
CC: "Yes, Compamare Livorno, only a technical failure."
CG: "Costa Concordia, are you sure that is a technical failure? We know that there are passengers on board wearing life jackets."
CC: "Compamare, confirm: it is a technical failure."
The incredible thing is that the CG had to call the C. Concordia ship (and not the vice-versa) after they received a call by a relative of a lady on-board the ship. This lady has called home to tell them about the accident, and her relatives have then called Carabinieri to have more info. The Carabinieri knew nothing about the accident, so they have contacted the Coast Guard. The CG knew nothing too, so they checked the ship's AIS track, saw that something strange is going on and have immediately called the ship.
An hour has already passed since the ship has hit the rock.
The most incredible part is yet to come.
A vessel of the Guardia di Finanza (GdF - Financial Police) was called in by the CG to check the situation. When they have arrived near the ship, it was already listed. They were asked by the CC crrew if they could tow a rope to help move the ship out of the zone. the GdF crew couldn't believe their ears.
At this point the commander's blunder has become public and the order to evacuate the ship was given. The captain (whose name is Francesco Schettino) and some crew members have arrived to the port among the first ones, according to this reconstruction of events. He took the taxi and asked the driver to take him "as far as possible from there". So the driver took him to his house, to give him some food and drink.
That's where he received the next three phone calls from the CG.
CG: "Captain, you are not on the ship?"
FS: "No, I'm not aboard and I'm not going back there"
The next phone call:
CG: "Captain, I have been ordered to tell you that you must get back on board"
FS refuses again to comply.
The third phone call was more shouted than talked, from both sides.
After that (not specified precisely when), the "captain" took a boat for Porto Santo Stefano (across the channel), where he was arrested by Carabinieri.

The issue is not the captain, they are a dime a dozen, its the catastrophic oil spill that may occur if the weather deteriorates before the salvage company can evacuate it from the ship. . Several thousand tons of fuel on board and a powerful Mistral forecast. This mess will affect prime superyacht cruising grounds and charter bookings. Your guests in the white supertender will turn black. Imagine all those tar blobs on your teak deck.

As of right now, it seems like the situation fuel-wise is under control. As far as I have read there is no spills and a couple of dedicated boats are on site anyway, just in case. Let's see how it goes, but yeah, it would definitely be a tragedy if the oil finds its way out to sea...

The important lesson to learn for all crew is that if the captain...looses his mind ...you will have to recall your training and take charge of the situation.
The ordinary crew of Costa Concordia must be commended. They safely evacuated thousands of passengers, even though the captain was decapitated.. During your career, as a crew , you may be called to perform the same task. Pay attention to your training. Take life seriously. The passengers on Costa Concordia were saved by ordinary Cabin crew performing their duty.

I'm glad someone brought this situation up on here as I'm interested to know what the rest of the yachting community think.
I've read reports that some crew also neglected their duties when evacuating passengers though and that the language barriers complicated things.

What I am surprised has not happened: The entire fleet of Costa lines should be returned to port, the IMO should investigate the capability of their Captains, and a major safety check should be carried out immediately... Any airline carrying 300 passengers or less this would happen? Whats going on here?

Its bad management on Costa's part . The Concordia's captain was joy riding, doing a Giglio drive by and had performed this maneuver many times before. Cruise ships don't Gunk-hole like yachts. Management should have known.

I just want to see from the black box recorder where the ship actually went, we don't seem to have heard anything on this yet, was it a new set of rocks thrown up by seismic activity of which there is plenty? . If it turns out the rocks were not on the charts then he has an excuse to be excused. My praise to him for getting the ship to the island, otherwise we'd be looking at more of a turn-turtle Poseidon adventure rather than a TITANIC scenario where the TITANIC took hours to go down rather than in this case where it started to sink quite quickly. Commiserations to all involved, can't wait to hear the whole truth. In the meantime I want to know its course so I don't make the same mistake Yours 'aye Cap'n Ed hideousfrance.com

It's more stunning than a fictional story
Wonder if the designated compartments were secured when she struck
Not knowing the details but it seems if all affected compartments were secured the ship could have survived or at least stayed navigable for a considerable time

All that has been said is hearsay. Untill the report comes out we will never know the whole story, truth or not.
There are MANY captains who have their ticket who should not be driving boats.
As we all know, captains on most boats don't go through a pyscological profile test. I would imagine this will change in the future.
Whatever the circumstances of the disater, it puts a black mark on the industry and capatins as a whole.

and to think my wife got offered a job with Costa about a year ago, only we never went, as I was also trying to get a job on the same boat as her but I didn't get an offer, we could have been on the Concordia.....

I was listening to Dianne Rheem on NPR while running errands today and she said that Costa is not going to pay any court fees for the captain and has asked that the cruise line be listed among the victims of the accident. They are going to try to hold the captain solely responsible for the accident.

I am still amazed that Costa have not been grounded as an operator until further investigation has taken place. It is clear now that this event was an eventual outcome of a bravado navigation extreme commonplace over the last two years. A 300m vessel within 500m of land at 23knots? Come on? It actually, must be recognised without doubt however, that the guy did turn it round and ground it second time right outside a port though. Which without question saved many many lives. This must be going to be a big story when we get the truth, the press are really changing the tale every few hours on this one!

What I am surprised has not happened: The entire fleet of Costa lines should be returned to port, the IMO should investigate the capability of their Captains, and a major safety check should be carried out immediately... Any airline carrying 300 passengers or less this would happen? Whats going on here?

Nope, it doesn't happen at the airlines either otherwise Air France would have had to stand down after they found out that Air France Flt 447 was flown into the Atlantic Ocean by 3 pilots none of whom realized the plane was in a stall and imagined that some how it would stop dropping during that 3+ minute long stall (commanded by the pilot flying holding the stick back) with the throttles back at flight idle, same place they put them about 3 seconds before the wheels touch down; the rest of the flight they stay forward.

There is nothing in the world outside of extinction or evolution that will prevent 'stupid human tricks' because as a species, we're pretty stupid.

I just want to see from the black box recorder where the ship actually went, we don't seem to have heard anything on this yet, was it a new set of rocks thrown up by seismic activity of which there is plenty? . If it turns out the rocks were not on the charts then he has an excuse to be excused. My praise to him for getting the ship to the island, otherwise we'd be looking at more of a turn-turtle Poseidon adventure rather than a TITANIC scenario where the TITANIC took hours to go down rather than in this case where it started to sink quite quickly. Commiserations to all involved, can't wait to hear the whole truth. In the meantime I want to know its course so I don't make the same mistake Yours 'aye Cap'n Ed hideousfrance.com

Next best thing, an AIS track showing the rock on the chart.... The narration is a bit tough to listen to but you'll see what happened and understand it a bit better.